Melody

The melody is often the most important part of a song. In the textbook Crossroads in Music, melody is described as “a succession of musical tones organized in a meaningful fashion” (p. 17). We can differentiate between songs because of their different melodies. Crossroads in Music (p. 17) explains that good melodies are easy to remember, but also different enough to be unique.
There are some vocabulary you need to know when discussing a song's melody. Much of the definitions below come from the textbook Crossroads in Music (p. 17-24).

Pitch

Pitch is the “highness or lowness of sound.” The keys on a piano each represent a different pitch, with higher pitches towards the right of the piano and lower pitches towards the right. Pitch and note are often used synonymously, although the meaning is slightly different.

Scales

A scale is “sequences of pitches” – a series of pitches that customarily go together. The most common scale in Western music is the C major scale, which include all the white keys on the piano from one C to the next C. In Western music there are two common scales, namely major scales and minor scales. Minor scales tend to sound sad, therefore sad ballads are often written in a minor scale. On the other hand, happy songs are written in major scales.

The most important note in the melody is called the tonic (also known as the key); for example, “C” is the tonic for a song written in C major.

A special type of scale that uses only five pitches (only the black keys on the piano) is called the pentatonic scale. Music from Asian cultures are often in the pentatonic scale. A very famous Western song that is in the pentatonic scale is “Amazing Grace”.

Melodic Contour, Motion, and Range

The contour (or shape) of a melody describes how the notes move up or down in pitch. For instance, the melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” starts by ascending from C to A, then changing direction and descending again to C. Next follows two repetitions of a descending pattern (starting with G and ending in D), after which the first part with its ascending-descending form is repeated.

Notes can move up and down by stepping (conjunct) or skipping (disjunct). Stepping means that the notes move up or down one pitch at a time. Skipping means that the notes miss some pitches when the melody progress up or down. In the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” the melody starts by repeating the same note (C) twice and then skipping upward to G, which is also repeated twice. The melody then steps one note up to (A) which is also repeated twice. Next the melodic contour changes direction and descends through a series of downward steps and repetitions. And so on.

“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” has a short range. Its range only spans six notes from C to A. The range of a song is the distance between the the lowest and the highest pitch. Usually the wider the range of a song, the more difficult it is to perform. Vocalists are often praised if they can sing a wide range (very low and very high notes).

Countermelody

Apart from the primary melody, a song may have a secondary melody which is called the countermelody. Listen to the Rossini's "Duet for Two Cats" in the YouTube-video below. The first vocalist sings the primary melody and the second vocalist sings the countermelody. The piano provides the harmony.



Usually the countermelody is considered to be of secondary importance to the primary melody. Do you think that the countermelody in Rosinni's "Duet for Two Cats" is of less importance that the primary melody? Why or why not?